In computer graphics, “jaggies” refer to step-like lines that appear (e.g., in aliased text) where there should be smooth straight lines or curves. Jaggies typically occur because an output device (e.g., a monitor), does not have sufficient resolution to represent a smooth line.
Anti-aliasing is a commonly used technique to reduce jaggies, thereby enabling a computer system to present text (i.e., anti-aliased text) with smooth contours that better emulate the appearance of text produced by conventional ink-and-paper printing. Anti-aliasing reduces the prominence of jaggies by surrounding the step-like lines with intermediate shades of gray (for gray-scaling devices) or color (for color devices).